2012 lingers, but these Spurs aren’t those Spurs

The Spurs hadn’t even completed their postgame showers after taking a 2-0 lead over Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday when conversation turned to the not-so-distant past.

They’ve been here before, against the same team, at the same juncture, with the same advantage, only to see both their two-game edge and a 20-game win streak crumble to ashes. That was the 2012 conference finals, when what seemed at the time to be the Spurs’ last best chance at winning another championship before Tim Duncan hung up his jersey withered in the face of four straight victories by the Thunder.

It marks only the 16th time in 260 instances that a team has failed to advance after winning the first two games in a best-of-seven series, leaving a scar that remains to this day.

“We cannot take anything for granted,” Manu Ginobili said after scoring 11 points in the Spurs’ 112-77 triumph. “We had a great start and ended up losing the series (in 2012). Most of us were on that team and know not to make the same mistakes.”

Indeed, eight of the Spurs’ top nine scorers in the current playoffs participated in that meltdown, with Marco Belinelli serving as the lone newcomer among the main rotation. And yet the makeup of both Spurs squads has changed so substantially — not to mention that of Oklahoma City sans the departed James Harden and injured Serge Ibaka — as to render any meaningful comparison between the two series almost meaningless.

Perhaps the biggest difference is the growth and deployment of Tiago Splitter. Despite an excellent regular season, Splitter was still adjusting to the NBA in his second season out of Spain. Coach Gregg Popovich had so little confidence in him at that stage that Splitter played a grand total of one minute alongside Tim Duncan in the 2012 series, with the majority of that time going to the newly-signed Boris Diaw.

With Splitter promoted to the starting lineup early last season, he and Duncan have developed into one of the league’s better interior defensive tandems, teaming to limit opponents to 93.4 points per 100 points when they’ve shared the court together in these playoffs. Splitter continued his strong postseason with one of the better all-around performances in franchise history on Wednesday, becoming the first player not named Duncan or David Robinson with nine points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks in a playoff game.

That was three more blocks than he had during the entire 2012 series, and he’s already nearly doubled his rebound total in just two games, 18-11. For good measure, he did a fairly reasonable Diaw impersonation with a handful of simple yet clever passes, an added bonus from the 6-11 forward that helps lubricate the Spurs’ motion offense. (Source: Grantland)

Danny Green has enjoyed similar improvement after getting essentially benched over the final two games in 2012. Now a regular starter like Splitter, he scored 21 on Wednesday to surpass his entire series total of 20. Consistency remains an issue. But Green has earned enough trust that Popovich lets him take pull-up 3s without the threat of calling timeouts to blast his eyeballs out, while Duncan hustles down court to facilitate them with screens.

Those are the two glaring jumps that have impacted the current series. Then there’s Kawhi Leonard, already an integral piece in 2012 but still just an underage rookie expected to do the front-line defensive work on Kevin Durant at a point in life where most of his peers had yet to begin their core coursework in college.

Leonard handled himself well, as he’s done pretty much throughout his budding young career. But much like the latest version of your smart phone, 22-year-old Leonard is a considerable improvement over 20-year-old Leonard, as indicated by his NBA-best plus 14.7 net rating through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Limited strictly to spot-up shots and hustle opportunities as a rookie, he is now slowly but surely enforcing his will on the offensive end while developing into one of the league’s top perimeter defenders.

Neither Patty Mills or Marco Belinelli have yet to do much in the current series, and have had their ups and downs during the postseason. But Mills, once a mascot in almost every sense but the costume, has ensured his next NBA contract with a career season, while Belinelli is an upgrade over Gary Neal mainly by not being Gary Neal. (He also led the Spurs in 3-point shooting during the regular season at 43 percent, while blending in seamlessly with his high IQ and solid skill set.)

Their collective contributions dwarf those of Stephen Jackson, the only other significant player in the 2012 series who is no longer with the team. And perhaps that sums up what went sideways back then as much as anything: The Spurs were relying on a guy playing for his ninth team (we’ll count the Spurs twice) in 12 seasons to shoulder major responsibilities on both ends of the court. And make no mistake: Captain Jack was up to it, absolutely relishing the challenge of a do-or-die Game 6 in Oklahoma City.

But it wasn’t exactly a textbook example of the continuity the Spurs value so dearly, certainly not like they’ve been able to cultivate in recent seasons as they battle to reach the Finals for a second straight season.

Notice we haven’t even gotten to the Thunder yet.

Think they could use an extra offensive option to take pressure off the swooning Durant and Russell Westbtook? That’s what they had in 2012 with James Harden, who wasn’t great in that series but still hit perhaps the single biggest shot with his step-back 3 to ice Game 5 in San Antonio.

And there’s no need to provide yet another examination of how much the Thunder miss their injured defensive anchor. One stat sums it up: While Ibaka rehabs his strained calf back in Oklahoma City, the Thunder have been virtually powerless to prevent the Spurs from scoring 120 paint points in two games.

The Spurs’ sense of caution is completely justified as they attempt to finish the Thunder off in perhaps the most inhospitable arena in the NBA. But if the home team is going to duplicate its 2012 comeback, it will have to do it with less firepower, against a significantly improved team.